


These Damn Sunsets

by LT_Aldo_Raine



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Canon Era, Happy Ending, M/M, Pennsylvania, Post-War, Pre-Slash, Slash, Sunsets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 08:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20871053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LT_Aldo_Raine/pseuds/LT_Aldo_Raine
Summary: “I didn’t think you’d come.”Lew’s fingers twitched, but this time, there was no flask. “Wasn’t gonna.”OR: After the war, Dick and Lew watch a Pennsylvania sunset.





	These Damn Sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, folks, I made it back to the states...! Wrote this little guy while watching the sunset off my new porch. Hope y’all enjoy.

Dick Winters owned a westward-facing house. The modest Pennsylvania farmhouse sat on half a dozen acres of land in Lancaster County, and in the evenings, after a meal at his parents’ home in town or an afternoon spent fishing with Hal and Jimmy, old pals from school who, like Dick, came back from the war in Europe a little stiffer in the shoulders and a little quicker on their feet, Dick would sit on the wooden bench on his front porch to watch the golden light spill over his roof and paint the treeline in a soft, burnt glow. 

A cloudless dusk was Dick’s favorite.

For thirteen weeks after his return stateside, the redhead concluded every day in the same manner, a sentinel, be it rain or wind or shine or storm, his body occupying the exact same spot on the right side of the bench, the left half empty, a waiting invitation. Then, on the second night of the fourteenth week, the invitation was answered. The seat was taken. 

“I didn’t think you’d come.” 

Lew’s fingers twitched, but this time, there was no flask. “Wasn’t gonna.” 

“What changed your mind?” asked Dick, despite the nervous tension in his stomach, the irregular murmur of his heart. 

The former intelligence officer was silent for a moment, his eyes skimming the forest, the light of golden hour reflected in his dark irises. After a beat, the corner of Lew’s mouth inched upward in response. He glanced at Dick, and the redhead felt as if he was on fire. “Well, you wouldn’t shut up about these damn sunsets. Figured I had to come see one for myself.” 

A smile, open and honest and happy and free, carved the pale lips of Dick’s face, the expression mirrored immediately by his companion, and the redhead wanted to reply, impishly, “Took you long enough,” but when Dick spoke, his words were entirely too genuine, too on-the-nose.

Lew sighed. It was a sound of contentment, of acceptance, of longing, of peace, of— He shifted his gaze away from his friend. The trees, a delightful mixture of towering white pines and sprawling beeches peppered with the occasional hemlock, were bathed in a gentle yellow hue. “It sure is somethin’ to look at.” 

“Just wait.” 

So, they did, settled back against the wood paneling of the house, Dick seated firmly in his spot on the right side of the bench, Lew pressed closely to his side on the left, as darkness slowly descended, a brilliant golden blanket gradually covering the trees before disappearing altogether. When it was over, Dick politely informed Lew that no two sunsets were alike, that, perhaps, tomorrow’s would be even better. 

“Then, I guess I’ll have to stick around for that, too.”

Dick wondered what his old friend would say when the redhead told him that the sunsets changed seasonally, as well. He wondered, but he suspected he already knew the answer. 

* * *

Twenty-one weeks and one-hundred-forty-seven sunsets later, Lew huffed and pointedly told Dick that one drawer in the bedroom would no longer suffice, he demanded a whole chest of drawers for himself. After that, the pair never missed another sunset together.


End file.
